Azumi Inoue, Songstress Behind Many Ghibli Hits, with Yuyu!

Fri

Sat 1

Studio Ghibli’s world-famous anime are beloved by both children and adults the world around, and the songs featured in many of their works are iconic masterpieces; anybody who’s heard the theme song from My Neighbor Totoro will instantly recognise the famous tune. We’re thus extremely excited to have Azumi Inoue, singer of songs from Laputa: Castle In The Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and the aforementioned My Neighbor Totoro, performing at this summer’s HYPER JAPAN Festival, alongside her daughter Yuyu!

BIOGRAPHY
Making her debut in 1983 Azumi first gained notice as the singer of the end theme for Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli animation movie, Laputa: Castle In The Sky with “Carrying You”. Performing as a singer on many early Studio Ghibli movies, she is known for such favorites as the opening and end themes for My Neighbor Totoro: “Stroll” and “My Neighbor Totoro” ; and incidental music for Kiki’s Delivery Service: “Changing Seasons” and “Maho No Nukumori”. In addition to movie theme songs, she has also performed theme songs for local authorities, classic songs from school textbooks, as well as the official theme song for Peter Rabbit. Her voice and music is loved by people from all generations.

Yuyu made her 2012 debut at the age of only seven years old, performing the song “6 Sai No Ballad” for the NHK TV show Minna No Uta, which proved a huge hit as the show was bombarded with requests for it to be repeated. She has since followed up with two more songs on the same show, collaborating with the rock band Watanabe Flower for “Tan Tan Tan” in 2013 and then in 2014 performed “Hanbun Otona”, a duet alongside her mother Azumi.